


Glimpse

by IndigoProphecy



Category: Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-15
Updated: 2013-06-15
Packaged: 2017-12-15 01:40:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/843819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IndigoProphecy/pseuds/IndigoProphecy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Holly's life is quiet now: desk job, bickering kids, concerned husband and a quaint house in the suburbs. She was far from happy, but she was perfectly content. Until one day, Holly wakes up on a different bed, with Artemis Fowl beside her and no clue how she got there. A glimpse of what her life should have been: hurt, bliss, passion and Artemis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glimpse

Flick, stamp, sign. Flick, stamp, sign.

Commander Kelp didn't even bother to read the thing. It wasn't like the report was about an international crisis. It was just the first of twenty compilations of Grub Kelp's complaints for last, last week. She hasn’t even started noting last week’s compilation of Grub complaints and the gods know she’s trying very hard not to think about this week’s.

It had been tolerable for the first few months of her promotion. This was because she passed on the complaints to some disgruntled lower-ranker. When Grub got wound of this, he barged in her office and _demanded_ that his complaints get proper attention. Something about _this institution not taking my comments seriously for their own self improvement_ and something along the lines of _and you’d think my sister-in-law would know the fundamentals of blah blah blah._ Grub threatened to go to the press, and heaven knows LEP can’t stand anymore heat from the press.

4 o’clock.

Holly sighed. She stacked the unfinished paperwork aside and collected her things. Gone were the days she would do an air fist pump at the end of her shift. Why should she? Even though this shift’s finish, there’s always tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that…

After the two-hour, uneventful, daily battle against the 4 o’clock traffic jam at Spud Avenue, she finally pulled the car in front of San D’Klass High just as she had everyday for the past years. The doors of the vehicle swung open; three young elves and a foal entered. The doors slammed shut, and they were on the highway again.

“Aunt Holls! Aunt Holly! During lunch, Raffles keeps pulling my hair. First graders aren’t even allowed in that area! “ 

“Rafflesia, stop pulling Juniper’s hair at school. “ Holly said, pulling out of the parking and setting the navbot to their house.

“You’re such a tattletale, Juni. I did _not_ pull his hair, mom. I just yanked it accidentally and the-“

“Shut your trap, Jake. I do not! Shut up, donkeyboy.”  Sage’s voice rose above the rest.

“Aunt Holly, your son just insulted me.” Said the centaur, the picture of calmness, in reply to Sage’s outburst.

“Be nice, Sage.” Holly said.

“Why, Juni?” Apparently, Rafflesia and Juniper’s argument was not forgotten. “Are you embarrassed that your geek friends watched you get pawned by a five-year-old first grade? You should be thanking me! Girls might’ve seen and think it was cute. You definitely needed that, geek-“

“Why is a five-year-old lecturing me about social rules?”

Holly tuned the whining out, occasionally spouting the expected answers and nodding when needed. And so, the typical chaos continued as they rode home. Just like yesterday and the days before that, Holly Short was stuck at the 5 o’clock traffic jam at Spud Avenue. Whoever built this city was a fucking genius. Yes, put only _one_ advertisement and pedestrian infested avenue to connect downtown Haven and the residential districts, they said. It would look nice on the tourism brochures, they said. No need for other highways and even small streets for shortcuts they said.

“…then Molly said-“

“We couldn’t give a d’arvit on what your crush said, Juni.”

“Mooommmm! Sage said a bad word. Mooommmm!” Rafflesia was _shrieking_.

Holly, stuck at traffic, had long since trained her ears to be immune to the children’s squabbling. She loved her children, dearly so. Sometimes they were the only thing in her life that made her happy. However, sometimes…

 Her gaze was drifting lazily on the billboards as she navigated her way through the unmoving traffic. They were the same billboards she had been staring at for the past months. Underground Sun tan lotion; Barmy’s Burnin’ Burritos; Journey to the Center of the Earth, Now Showing... that last one was new.

“Dad said you’d go, Aunt Holly. He- Shut up, Sage! Yes you _do!_ ”

“ _You_ shut up, Jake. My father is a Council chairman and he could have you thrown at Howler’s Peak.”

“No offense, Aunt Holly, but your eldest son is one stuck-up, gung-ho bully.”

“Jake’s right, Sage.” Rafflesia said, doing a 360 degree personality turn around. “You don’t have to tell the whole world that our dad’s on the Council and our mom’s a Commander at LEP. The high school kids would still talk to you even if you don’t have influential parents. Because you’re oh so nice and interesting and they have nothing better to do than talk to fourth graders.”

“Thank you, Raffles.”

“I was being sarcastic.”  She spat, her dark hair bouncing.

“Anyways, it turns out sodium bicarbonate-“ Jake was saying.

“My next door neighbors are insane!” Juni exclaimed.

Their car finally crawled its way to central Spud Avenue. The whole area was like Times Square and Fifth Avenue mashed together. Tall, towering advertisements hid high-class shops and department stores. Holly’s drained eyes landed on the large TV screen. It was running that PPTV special. Her eyes flickered a bit as Artemis Fowl appeared on screen, talking about something.

“ Oh yeah? Well at least I’m not a loser lesbian.”

“I’m not a lesbian, Sage. I’m only five.” Raffles rolled her purple eyes, something she inherited from her father. “How can I be thinking about _those_ things? I haven’t even hit puberty yet!”

“Stop, Sage, before your sister starts babbling about awkward girl stuff!” The foal moaned.

“How do you even know what other first graders gossip about me?” The elf unleashed full rage on her older brother. “You’re in _fourth_ _grade_! Bet you got nothing to do but snoop around little kids-“

“Enough!” Holly snapped sharply, raising her voice above the four children’s. “I said enough!”

“Please, kids.” She said more calmly. “No more fighting. I’m trying to hear the PPTV show.”

Everyone was stunned into silence. The three elves and the foal peeked outside the window, trying to see what their guardian was fussing about.

Holly rolled down the window. She absorbed his forehead, frowning into lines that had been there since he was a child. His pale face looked so much like his father. When was the last time she him? It’s been ten years since that fateful day... that fateful day that determined the difference between friends bonded by trauma and friends estranged by time.

“…Don’t forget to tune in at 9 o’clock for the rest of the exclusive interview with Artemis Fowl II.” The screen moved on to a Marty’s Mayonnaise commercial. Holly closed her eyes for a moment, trying so hard not to remember those horrible memories. It was a miracle she managed to not think about him much for the past decade when he keeps popping in on the news and at work.

“Artemis Fowl. We’re studying the Fowl Siege in Social Studies. The quiz on that was bloody difficult.” Sage said, filling the unusual silence that crept over them. The car in front of them moved, giving Holly enough space to exit the avenue to a side street. At last, they were free of the Spud Avenue traffic.

Taking Sage’s statement as a conversation starter, the chaotic discussions ensued, oblivious to the reeling Holly in the driver’s seat.

“Yeah, I remember studying him during fourth grade. Mrs. Sepal was part of his fan club right? Kept quizzing us on his favorite color and all that shit.” Juniper mused.

“Bad word!” Raffles hissed. “Mom, say something!”

“Yeah, I know right.” Sage said, ignoring the girl. “For the exam, there was this essay about his ongoing divorce to his wife. Melinda something. Then we had to relate his divorce to the fairy laws on parental separation. I’d rather eat stink worms than-”

“He and Minerva are divorced?” Holly asked suddenly, hitting the breaks just in time to avoid a hover van, surprising the children once again. “Wait, they were _married?”_

“I don’t know, Auntie. Well, yeah. Um…” Juni smiled sheepishly, nervous that Holly might tell his mom about not studying for that exam. It might do well that his mother never knows he flunked that essay by inventing all sorts of stuff. Apparently, mud people don’t sword duel to settle children custody and Artemis Fowl did not lose his son because of his wife’s superior sword duel skills.

“I thought you knew him, mum.” Rafflesia said just as Holly pulled over in front of their house. After the general exclamations of “Yey!” the kids hurriedly opened the doors, carried their bags out and scampered towards the porch, conversation already forgotten in desperation to be finally free of the cramp vehicle.

Holly watched as Foaly’s son waved goodbye to her children and galloped towards his house across the street. Juniper, the elf who lives next to them, also said his farewells before trudging home.

“I thought I knew him, too.” She whispered to no one before following her children to her house.

xXx

The day progressed to an end just as any other day for Holly Kelp progresses. After she attempted to clean up the kids’ pack lunches, she set about selecting dinner. This was an illusion Holly always tells herself, as dinner in the Kelp household was almost always pizza.

Just like any other day, Trouble had arrived home two hours after the pizza arrived. Right on time. Holly looked up from the paperwork she had taken home and muttered a hello to her husband. As usual, Sage was buried deep in his wrist-computer, playing Warcraft while Raffles was busy reading a sim-book thicker than her arm. Both were, as always, oblivious to their father’s arrival.

Usually, Trouble would pass by the kitchen, kiss Holly on the forehead, pick up a pizza slice and disappear in his office. He would only reappear at nine in the evening, when the Kelps would gather around the living room to watch the evening news. It was a daily routine, and by now none of them needed to look at the clock to know when it was time to convene in the living room. Then, at ten, Sage would stealthily disappear into his room escaping yet again goodnight kisses from his parents. Ten minutes after that, Raffles would mutter something before she, too, disappears into her room.

Today however, he hovered in the kitchen, frowning at the box of asparagus pizza.

“Why d’you order pizza, Holly?”

Startled by the atypical question, Holly looked up from her files. “Dinner.” She finally mustered, after getting over the shock.

“The LEP gala’s tonight. Dinner’s going to be served.” Trouble sighed.”You forgot, didn’t you?”

“That’s dinner for the kids. Children eat, Trouble. Remember?” Yes, Holly forgot. She might as well pin this on Trouble, anyways. Her husband might as well be a lamp post with all the help he’s been giving with raising the children. At least a lamp post lights up the street at night.

“Just get ready by eight, Holly.” Trouble, tired from work, exited the kitchen.

Xxx

Unlike the earlier car ride, the traffic is much less denser. Holly watched the suburb houses fade into Haven’s buildings outside the window. Eventually, they exited to the main avenue. It had been a fairly quiet ride.

“You heard about the meeting tomorrow?” Trouble grunted, breaking the silence.

“No.” Holly’s secretary, a grumpy gnome corporal, usually tells her about her meetings five minutes before it. “What about it?”

“Fowl’s going to be there. Wants to establish a fairy department in his company to manage all the interspecies projects going on."

“Oh.” Holly said, trying not to show her reaction to seeing Artemis in person for the first time since… “Do I have to be there?”

“Holly, you’re Recon Commander. Even when you were a Major, you attended major Council meetings.” Trouble turned left. He stared at Holly.

Sensing the change, Holly looked away from the window. She sighed, her shoulders sagging. “Trouble, about this commander thing…”

Holly braced herself, and then let it out before she got to scared. “I want to demote myself back to major, even captain.”

“What?” Trouble spat. The car swerved sharply to the left lane, causing cars to honk around them. “If you don’t want to see Fowl then don’t go to the meeting, alright?”

“It’s not that.” A mild rumbling in Holly’s veins stirred. She wasn’t angry, but she was nearly there.

Trouble sighed. “I know, Holly. I know. But we need a commander’s paycheck. We can’t feed two kids, ourselves and a pet cat with a captain’s salary. We can’t raise two kids _and a pet cat_ _which you begged to keep_ while both of us are constantly disappearing, me off to council meetings and you off aboveground. One of us has to be here.”

Holly looked at Trouble’s haggard eyes and sighed. She seemed to be doing lots of sighing lately. Vaguely, she pictured Neut, Rafflesia’s adored Siamese Trouble’s so bitter about.

They pulled up at Spud Emporium, where the LEP event was going to be held. Holly got out of the car hurriedly. She didn’t even have the energy to slam the door. Instead she marched towards the entrance. Trouble didn’t call her back, or ask her to wait for him. He knew that she needed some space. That, or he was too busy and had already dismissed the matter from his mind. Holly shrugged off the last thought and started to walk towards door.

Reaching the entrance, Holly sighed in resignation and looked back, ready for reconciliation. She regretted it immediately. Trouble was already arm in arm with Internal Affairs’ Commander Cortez, completely oblivious to his troubled wife.

Xxx

Holly mostly skips social functions like this. Being Mrs. Council Chairman meant that she was invited to state dinners, charity galas and museum openings often. But she was Commander, too. She didn’t remember Julius Root going to dinner parties, so neither will she.

The annual LEP Veterans Thanksgiving gala is an exception though. Its formal name notwithstanding, the event is really more of an excuse for an all-out, inter-department Christmas party. After the LEPGeneral Commander and the president of the LEPVA (LEP Veterans Association) say their short, meaningless speeches and toasts to the noble veterans of the LEP, the lights would dim, the alcohol will materialize and the games would begin. It’s no wonder why no one wears formal wear to the gala.

By ten o’clock, Holly couldn’t bear it anymore. She excused herself from Foaly and No1, whom she had been clinging to during the entire event instead of her husband. Foaly knew her better than she expected though, and saw through her sighs.

“I’ll go with you.” Foaly neighed. Something was up. “Let’s leave this dump and go loosen it up at this groovy disco down-“  

“Don’t sweat it, Foaly. I don’t need a drink. I’m just tired.” Holly gave her best friend a smile.

“I’ll take you home then. So Trouble won’t bitch about the ride.” Foaly offered.

She considered it. She can’t take her car, as Trouble won’t be able to go home. But then Holly saw Foaly’s excuse for a van in her mind. His last van was obliterated during the Great Techno Crash, but somehow the tech consultant found an even shabbier one to replace it.

“No thanks, centaur. I think I want to live another day.” Holly said, chuckling at Foaly’s pout. “Just tell Trouble I went ahead, okay?”

Foaly waved goodbye to his friend, who was already retreating.

“My friend seems _troubled_.” The imp said, also staring at Holly’s back.

“Har har. But you’re right No1.” Foaly replied. “I just don’t know how to help her. She’s getting worse and worse…”

“You see my witticism there, Foaly? _Trouble_ also refers to Holly’s spouse. It is called a pun and is intended to be humorous.” No1 explained. He was trying to continue his joke, as this was how his centaur friend preferred to communicate. Beneath the kidding however, the little warlock was concerned.

“We need to help her.” No1 decided.

“Yes, we should.” Foaly agreed.

xxx

Haven City whisked by as the Stick moved along. Holly clutched her handle as she observed her city. Eventually, her usual drop off neared. If she leapt off here, she would walk half a block to the bus circuit which passes their subdivision. Back to her home, where she would await Trouble’s eventual homecoming and confrontation.

Holly prepared for the leap, stepping forward and loosening her grip. Her stop passed, and the Stick trudged on its way across Haven. Holly was still clutching her handle. The platform was still taking her along its path. Somehow, Holly can’t go home. Not yet. The Stick emerged in downtown west, where the streets were still bustling with night life. Perhaps Holly would take Foaly’s suggestion and have a drink.

xxx

It was late, even for this neighborhood. Outside the establishment, only the sun strips above and the occasional lamp post gave a dim light. Inside, people were still bustling about and a pixie soloist still played his trombone on the corner stage. However, most of the bar’s nightly patrons had already left. Holly Short is not among them.

She was still seated at her perch on the bar, fingers tracing her umpteenth mug of beer. Her mind has not yet reached pleasant oblivion. How come her worries still nagged her? If anything, the alcohol made her fret about it more, and gave her an urge to babble and bawl about it.

“Impressive. That’s your fifteenth and you’re still awake.” A fairy had seated himself beside Holly. Throughout the night, several men had already occupied this seat and tried to buy Holly a drink. All just walked away empty handed, rejected by her stony glare. Holly gave the same treatment to the newcomer. She was surprised to find a woman.

“It seems you’re troubled, that’s why you came here.” The sprite met Holly’s glare head on. “It would be a waste if you weren’t able to unload and leave your troubles here.” 

Silence.                                             

“Do I look like some man who has an interest in you, let alone take advantage of you?” Holly, in her slightly tipsy state, observed the fairy. She had to admit, the sprite was an unlikely opportunistic pervert. Aside from being female, her white hair and the wrinkles by her wise eyes gave her a grandmotherly air. “I am simply a fairy who knows too much how your troubles feel.”

Holly drained her mug, anticipating the forthcoming buzz. The sprite talked again. “Life is short yet it seems so long at times. So long that we often find ourselves in a consuming discontent and lacking the reason to do anything about it. Sometimes we don’t realize that we were in a state of discontent until it’s too much.”

It _was_ all too much. Tears gathered in a rally under Holly’s eyes. What _has_ she done with her life? Why is she so despondent and unsatisfied? Why can’t she do anything about it? Is this some middle life crisis? With dread, she realized she can’t picture an end to her present state of life. All her future holds is this. There is no way out of it, Holly realized. Because this is her _life_.   

“Life is what you make it, they say.” The elderly sprite said, in her wise, stead voice. She was unperturbed by Holly’s lack of response. “But it’s easier said than done, no? What kind of life do you want?”

 _I want a happy life,_ Holly thought. _Like what I used to be._ _Only the feel of a shuttle seat and the rush of magma flares can give me that happiness, that_ life. _But I am a grown, matured woman now. I have family. They have to be enough._

Holly let herself cry a single tear for her nostalgia and her lost life of adventure. Then she stopped, sucked it up and put on a strong front. The sprite saw this change and smiled.

“Here, drink this. It would make you feel better.” The sprite signaled the barista, and he poured the two women a glass each.

Holly looked at the fairy beside her. It took a moment of contemplation but she finally drank the proffered drink.

Xxx

It had been six hours since he had last seen and heard from Holly. It had been four hours since he got home and commenced pacing the living room, slightly worried. He knew his wife would be safe. She was, after all, the first female LEPrecon commander. Really, he felt sorry for the fairy that’ll try to rape or mug her.

Nevertheless, a creeping anxiousness coiled around his stomach.  What if something did happen and Holly was too disoriented to defend herself? What if Holly is lying unconscious in some dwarf district alley?  For all he knew, they were immersed shit deep in another crazy fairy’s take-over-the-world plot.

What did Foaly say? The centaur said not to worry, and that she’ll come home by herself. _She just needs space,_ he told the councilman. Trouble didn’t like the fact that the irksome centaur knew the going-ons in his family life, but Foaly was Holly’s only confidante and Trouble had little choice on the matter.

The hours progressed and still Holly did not come home. Trouble was forced to acknowledge a _what if_ that chilled his heart.

What if Holly had had enough? What if Holly had ran away and left him?

Trouble shunted the thought right away. Holly would never abandon her kids. Moreover, she would never abandon her work. It was impossible. Besides, Haven was a small town and he was a councilman. If ever she did take this course of action, he could easily find her and confront her by tomorrow.  

But no. No way. Holly will not leave him. There was no cause to do so. They had two wonderful children. They were both doing well in a career that they had chosen. Sure, they were having a squabble but it was minor. They had disagreements like that weekly, and it was usually resolved before it gets out of hand.

A thought struck him. Was it because Fowl was coming? It had been, what, ten years! Surely Holly had long since moved on. Surely.  And what Fowl did… it was despicable. Unforgivable. Perhaps the memory of what he did put Holly on edge.

The elf rushed out when he saw an unfamiliar hovercraft pull up their driveway. A young pixie clad in a school uniform got out from the backseat, an unconscious Holly in his arms. Trouble relieved the fairy from the load, taking his wife in his arms.

“Is this her house?” The pixie asked.

“Yes. I’m her husband.” Trouble replied. “Thank you for bringing her home.”

“She was walking towards the Stick, obviously drunk. She looked like she needed a ride. She passed out sometime, but not before directing me here.”

He thanked the fairy again then carried Holly inside. Once he laid her on their bed, he checked her vitals. Nothing seems to be wrong aside from her turbulent magic, which was probably caused by the alcohol. He wiped her down with a warm cloth, gently removing the barely-there make-up Holly had worn for the event. Finally, he dressed her in her pajamas and tucked the elf in. Trouble washed his hands before taking his own position on the bed.

He loves Holly. He always had and always will, even now that she was barely a whisper of what she used to be. Trouble knew she was far from happy, but at least she was secure, safe and content. It was the best he could give her.

 _Starting tomorrow, I’ll fix us. We’ll talk it out, and she will be Holly again._ Trouble promised. He’ll even go as far as allowing her that demotion, if that’s what will make her happy. Then, he allowed himself to kiss Holly on the forehead.

Xxx

It was one of those mornings that Holly didn’t immediately open her eyes once she woke up. She had slowly slipped into consciousness without once opening her eyes. In her half-awake state, she noticed that she was not on her bed. Gone were the familiar firmness of her mattress and the slight prickle of her worn bed sheets. Instead, she was lying on a bed so soft, she sank halfway through. It felt like a thousand pillows and comforters were cocooning her. It felt so comfy that she snuggled deeper into the sheets. It smelled like grass and citrus and something else…

She felt around for a pillow and immediately came upon one. She hugged it closely. It felt different and smelled fiercely of that third mystery scent. The pillow was uncharacteristically firm, though it had a sort of squishiness about it.  It was not a pillow, she realized, but muscle. An arm. Trouble’s arm. She stiffened, feeling a slight unease. It had been a long time since he had snuggled up to Trouble. But it was _so_ comfortable. Should she let go?

 She opened her eyes, finding herself face to face…

“Good morning” he said, smiling.

 Holly screamed at his face, violently pushed the arm away and jumped off the bed.

“Is something wrong, Holly?” Artemis Fowl II said, as he climbed off the bed and walked towards Holly. 

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting on my computer for years before i got around to uploading it. Way before TTP was published. I just edited it to fit canon. This was first published from fanfiction.net. I'm new on this archive. This being my first post, I'm testing the waters. I refuse to let this fandom die!!! Tell me your thoughts.


End file.
